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Accruing and Reporting on Sick Leave Entitlements

You may be required by legislation, such as California's Paid Sick Leave Act, to accrue and report on mandatory sick leave entitlements. Like vacation entitlements and accruals, you enter information about sick leave on the Compensation tab of the 5-2-1 Employee Records window.

The accrued sick time available to an employee is displayed in the Sick Available box on the Compensation tab of the employee record. You can adjust this amount if, for example, you are entering sick leave information partway through the year.

The Rate that the employee accrues sick time depends on the legislation for your state and the Method you use to calculate the accrual (by hour or by pay period).

You can enter a Maximum amount of paid sick leave available to an employee—that is, the current year’s accrual less sick leave taken, plus the hours carried forward from the previous year. You can also enter an Annual Limit, which is the maximum an employee can accrue for the current year. Sage 100 Contractor uses the Maximum and Annual Limit in conjunction with Accrued YTD to determine whether sick leave must be accrued for a pay period.

At the beginning of a new payroll year, Sage 100 Contractor brings forward any remaining accrued sick time from the previous year and displays the amount in the Carry Forward box. This amount is reported on the 5-1-8-81 Sick Days Earned and Used report as the accrued sick balance from the previous year. You can change this amount, if necessary.

Example: The State of Colorado requires employers to provide paid sick leave to their employees, accrued at the rate of one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, up to a maximum of 48 hours per year. In this case, you would enter the following values in the fields in the Sick Available column on the Compensation tab:

Rate. One hour of paid sick leave for 30 hours worked is a ratio of 1/30. When you enter 1/30 and leave the Rate field, the program displays the calculated rate of 0.03333 in the field.
Method. Because the legislation demands that you calculate sick leave on an hours-worked basis, you select 1 – Per Hour as the calculation method.
Maximum. This maximum is optional. If you want to set a limit for the total amount of sick time available to the employee, you enter it here.
Annual Limit. Enter 48 or a higher number in this box. The legislation does not prevent you from offering more sick leave than what the state mandates.